After weaving one checkerboard warp on my mini-inkle, I decided I was ready for pickup weave.  I managed to warp my loom for pickup successfully, and I understood how to read the graphs.  I was very encouraged. 

I originally planned this band to be a Valentines Day collar for my dog- I wanted to weave hearts, but i realized that was a bit ambitious for my first pick up, so I tried diamonds.

Try as I might, I was not able to get my selvedges even, the band felt flimsy and I even missed a few warps-oops!  a faux pas when making a warp faced band! 

Dissappointed, I reread my Helene Bress book, and came to the realization that alot of my trouble was due to not pulling the weft tight enough- the warp threads should line up right next to each other- making an Extreme warp faced band.  Lesson learned!

XO Gail & Fog

Comments

Alison (not verified)

Gail - too funny!  I think you're criticizing your a bit harshly.  I note that the diamonds are nearly perfect and the selvages could be a whole lot worse!

I'm looking forward to the re-do.

lkautio (not verified)

Solution:  Put it on a multi-shaft loom with a nice reed and beater ;-)

Laurie Autio

msthimble

 

Dear Laurie,

Would that I could use a multishaft loom!!  But that woudl be too easy!  Seriously, I am using the inklette so that I an weave on the subway on the way to and from work and at lunchtime.  It is lightweight enough and not too bulky or fiddly- very portable. .  I am having having fun with it.  I'm making roughly one dog collar (one yard including loom waste) per week- I'll be donating some of them to Old Dog Haven's October Fundraiser- I have a good friend who volunteers there.

XO Gail & Fog

lkautio (not verified)

What a great thing to do!

Laurie Autio

msthimble

 

Thanks Laurie!  I get a kick out of being about to use my "talents" in a charitable way.  I'm also happy to report that I have had a few successes with inkle bands- good for the self esteem.  Weavign Guru is taking the Stars and Stripes collar to Convergence, it will be on display with many other member's treasures, in the Weavolution Booth!!  YAAAA!

XO Gail & Fog (ARGH!! I am NAKED!)

sally orgren

This was a sample I was trying out last year for an iridescence challenge. The colors were HORRIBLE! I was really glad I abandoned this idea quickly to move onto something else.

And then when the rest of the samples came in, and I saw that Barbara Walker used something similar in structure, but with *spectacular* results, I was super-grateful I decided to ditch this idea after only wasting a small amount of time on the sample! Arghhhhh.

 

 

msthimble

 

Dear Sally,

Well, it's like my dad used to say, "There's no accountin for taste"  ... I LOVE your irridescence!!!!   Go figure!!  Tell us more about what you don't like..  Do you feel like the sample failed to look irriddescent?  Do you dislike portions of the sample?   I view the left side as more dramatic than the right side,  When I cover the left side of the photo, I dont sense the irriddescence in the right side the way I thought I would- is that what you dont' like?  I have worked with irridescent taffeta and organza in commercial fabrics, and now I want to know what creates the effect, as both are plain weave cloths, warp is one color, weft is another color, that is how they are constructed.  Another question for the Creator!

XO Gail & Fog

sally orgren

I was shooting for the iridescence effect being made by the interaction of the colors, not the sheen of the yarn. I was staying with variations of cyan in different values, sometimes moving toward green, and then magenta, sometimes varying toward purple. I was also looking at the values, so this warp was testing lighter values. (The first sample warp I did was vibrant primaries: cyan, magenta, yellow, and the photo of that warp is what I use for my avatar!) 

I thought the design was sort of "thready" looking, and to get the cyan to match the grist, I think I had to double it on the bobbin, so that was a hassle with a 2-shuttle weave already! I didn't like how long the floats were, or how the fabric was feeling, either.

I DID post two other more successful results of this sampling process, with the same warp colors: Iridescence #3 and Iridescence #4. I really liked 3 and thought the variety of effects was cool, but for this challenge, I wanted to weave something I hadn't seen in "real-life" fabric before. That star pattern in #3 is a favorite by Alice Schlein in the book Twill Thrills. #4 is also one of her drafts, but I had never seen fabric woven from it before.

One thing that surprised me. When I settled on the fabric posted in #4, the iridescence was clearly evident when the fabric was draped or manipulated. But when cut up into 6 X 6" squares for the exchange and laying flat in a sleeve, not-so-much.

So I really liked Barbara's sample because even tho' it had long floats, the iridescence appeared readily on a small scale and even more-so when the fabric was removed from the sleeve and manipulated in your hand. It had a liveliness.

And in case anyone other than the two of us are reading this far, I sent the #4 remaining yardage down to the Weavolution Team for possible display at the Weavo booth at Convergence. (It remains to be seen if it is selected for display, however. ; - )

TNWEAVE (not verified)

I have 4 threads that are in the middle of my shed that need to be cleared so weaving can begin. They appear to be from the bottom of the cross. I checked the heddles and found no cross over of threads and the reed is sleyed correctly, but I can't clear this problem to start weaving. I have notice that I have a few more bottom threads in a row in this area without a top cross thread between them from a broken thread. Any suggestion on what else to check to clear this problem would be helpful. Thanks TNWEAVE

claudia (not verified)

Have you checked that the tension is even on all the threads?  Sometimes a few threads do not get tied as tightly as others when you are tying onto the front or lashing to the apron rod.  

Claudia

Neshobe (not verified)

It gave me the courage to post my first project!  Thanks!  (I had some missed warps too, but at least my rag rug was big enough for me to hide them using a needle with a little extra warp thread!)  I haven't used an inkle loom in years and years, so admire what you've done on it. 

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